IBM to Develop a Blockchain Network for France’s National Council of Clerks

IBM has been involved in a number of projects over the last couple of years implementing blockchain networks for different companies like Walmart and ADNOC. These projects involve implementing blockchain into supply chain operations and food traceability. The company has played an integral role in the development of the industry outside the cryptocurrencies market.

Now, the tech giant is furthering that cause by scoring a new deal with France’s Commercial Court Clerks for a blockchain network that will be used to record France’s business companies’ legal status and corporate registry over a distributed ledger.

IBM said in an announcement published on their website that the National Council of Clerks (NCC) project has already been tested with four court clerks and IT providers. The announcement also revealed that the project is meant for full-blown production in the first half of 2019. The aim of this project is to enable clerks in commercial courts to be able to do their job better. The project is intended to help clerks of commercial courts in keeping the records of different companies’ legal status and other documentation on a distributed ledger which is more transparent, secure and much more difficult to tamper with than any other systems available today.

The choice of blockchain for this project is further supported by the fact that this solution is meant to record the companies’ operations and status changes like name changes or new branch openings across multiple regions. IBM said that in a pilot project, the system was able to update a registry in just one day instead of taking several days in the traditional system all the white enhancing transparency and security.

Vincent Fournier, who is a senior manager for blockchain at IBM France, stated:

“This initiative is a first in the justice sector in France and is a perfect example of blockchain’s role in helping regulated professions as they transform. Blockchain’s qualities are ideal for this use, improving the clerks’ business processes and adapting to the ever-changing nature of their missions.”

The NCC’s president, Sophie Jonval also showed her support for the new deal in a statement saying, “We must be both pragmatic and at the forefront of progress on a technology such as a blockchain. The latter represents a major potential technology for our profession and for the modernization of the tools of Commercial Justice, reflecting our status, our mission, and our professional rules.” She was of the view that the project meets “the expectations and requirements of today’s multipolar and interconnected economic world.”